


Those we love are never truly gone

by SoftButchCassidy, TheBookwormBakery



Series: Destiny Hearts Crossover [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games), Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, and also riku but thats not as relevant here, i have so many emotions about eris morn, post-Shadowkeep
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22602652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftButchCassidy/pseuds/SoftButchCassidy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBookwormBakery/pseuds/TheBookwormBakery
Summary: Riku pays a visit to an old friend after finding a broken necklace.
Series: Destiny Hearts Crossover [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598011
Kudos: 2





	Those we love are never truly gone

The sight of the Pyramid from the balcony overlooking the abyss never failed to turn Riku’s stomach. Still, this was something he had to do. The carved beads pressed into his hand even through his gauntlet as he approached Eris, still surrounded by the phantoms of her fireteam.

“Please! Leave me alone!” she cried hoarsely. He wondered how often she raged at them for dredging up old memories and grief. The phantoms drifted away from her, and she stumbled forward, reaching out desperately. “No, wait! Don’t leave, I don’t…” One of the phantoms drifted forward again, soundlessly, and she fell to her knees. “I need you.”

She didn’t seem to hear Riku approaching, even when he stopped right next to her. Her shoulders were shaking slightly, and the phantom was moving, apparently pantomiming some kind of heated discussion. Could Eris hear what the phantom was saying? “Eris,” he said quietly. She snapped her head up with a sharp intake of breath. “I think you should have this.”

She looked up at him as he held out the necklace, and she took it from him with shaking fingers. “It’s Sai’s necklace,” she said, amazed. “I’d recognize her craftsmanship anywhere.” The phantom hovering next to her shivered and began dissolving as she spoke. “She’s the one who taught me how to use a knife to carve beads.” Her fingers curled around the necklace as the phantom disappeared, and she smiled sadly. Her voice wavered when she spoke again. “Perhaps I will take up carving again...” She met Riku’s eyes, and the combination of grief and longing in her expression made his heart ache. “Thank you, Riku.”

He nodded. “I can tell she means a lot to you.”

She turned the beads over in her hand thoughtfully. “When she joined the fireteam, Sai asked for only one thing: to be avenged.”

_ Sounds like a Hunter, _ Riku thought.

“I… wasn’t able to do that for her myself,” Eris said, her voice tinged with regret. “But… I ensured Omnigul's destruction. That must be enough. I think Sai - the real Sai, not this  _ phantom _ \- is at peace.”

“Sometimes that’s everything you can hope for.”

“It’s not hope; I know she is. I see that more clearly now, with her phantom no longer casting its shadow over me.” She looked over the other four phantoms, for now hanging still and silent except for the occasional twitch. “Perhaps with time, these too shall fade.”

“They will,” he said.

She laughed quietly. “I’d like to share your confidence.”

Riku stared at the Pyramid. The source of every Nightmare and phantom in the system. If he squinted, he could just make out the faint glow of its entrance.

“The Pyramid claims its lies are truth,” Eris said. “And the Light of the Traveler contradicts that.”

“The Darkness called the Traveler a liar. It wants to make us doubt it, and ourselves.”

“Are you in doubt?”

Riku hesitated. What he knew and felt about the Darkness had changed so much over the past several years. It was never as simple as “Darkness evil, Light good.” Or maybe it was. The two were opposites, each a complement for the other, and both necessary for the universe to exist.

The final shape the Hive were trying to forge, pushed along by their Worm Gods and the Darkness… only what dominated over and eliminated everything else was worthy of existing. But everything he knew was defined by change. Multiple shapes.

The Light. Growth. Life. And the Darkness. Reduction. Death.

“Not of the Traveler,” he said slowly. “But I can’t help but wonder if there’s a truth to the messages from the Pyramid that even it doesn’t recognize.”

“And what truth is that?”

“I don’t know. But it’s starting to come into focus.”

“Then I will return to my studies of the artifact,” Eris said. “And we will peel back the lies of the Darkness to find this hidden truth you sense.” She turned away, waving her hand, and the air around her started to shimmer. “And Riku?”

“Yeah?”

“If you find anything else belonging to my fireteam…” She straightened her shoulders, as if adjusting the weight of worlds. “Let me know.”

“Of course,” he said.

Eris vanished, leaving Riku alone with the Pyramid and what was left of the dead.

**Author's Note:**

> no joke i have had this mostly finished since the end of october. and then i just... dragged my feet on doing anything because i wanted to write out the rest of the memories first, or any of the other stuff that happened in between the events of shadowkeep and the first fic we posted. still havent done that! but it'll happen someday, the events exist so we just need to write them.
> 
> the more i think about the parallels between eris and riku the more emotional i get. i think they'd be really good friends who sit around being emo (and eventually hopeful) together


End file.
